Blocked toilets cleared in London
A toilet that will not flush away stops a household in its tracks. Sometimes it is one obstruction sitting in the pan and it clears in minutes. Sometimes the pan is only where the problem shows, and the real fault is further along the waste — a part-blocked branch, a shared soil stack, or a damaged drain outside. Ninja Plumbers clears the toilet first and then tells you which of those you have, because the second sort comes back and the first sort does not.
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- Emergency callout available 24/7
- Price agreed before work starts
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Monday – Sunday, 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM · Out-of-hours emergency? Call 020 3576 5825
Get a price for blocked toilet
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We’ll come back to you on the number you gave us. If it’s urgent and you’d rather not wait, call 020 3576 5825.
What this includes
- Toilets that will not flush away
- Water rising in the pan, or draining away slowly
- Wipes, sanitary products and other obstructions removed
- Blocked macerator and Saniflo toilets
- Blockages traced back to the soil stack or the drain outside
- Repeat blockages investigated by camera
- Same visit advice on what caused it
Worth knowing first
A little of this might mean you do not need to call us at all — we would still rather you knew it.
Stop flushing, then give it an hour
Every extra flush adds water to a pan that cannot drain, and that is how a blockage becomes a flood across the bathroom floor. Walk away and leave it alone. If the level drops on its own over the next hour, it is a partial blockage and can wait for an ordinary appointment. If it sits exactly where it is, it is a full one. Either way, bail the pan down into a bucket before anyone starts work — it makes the whole job considerably less unpleasant.
Most of what we pull out was never meant to go down there
Wipes — including the ones sold as flushable — kitchen roll, cotton wool pads, sanitary products and nappies do not break apart in water the way toilet paper does. They snag on anything rough inside the pipe and then catch everything that follows them. In older London housing with clay or cast-iron waste pipes there is plenty inside the pipe to snag on. The rule that keeps a toilet working is a dull one: pee, poo and paper, nothing else.
A macerator toilet is a different machine
If your WC sits in a basement, a loft conversion or under the stairs, and it hums for a few seconds after you flush, it is a macerator — a small grinding pump built into or behind the toilet that pushes waste along a narrow pipe. They block far more readily than an ordinary WC, they are particularly intolerant of wipes, and limescale from London’s hard water builds up inside them over the years. They also should not be plunged or rodded like a standard pan. Say it is a macerator when you call and we will turn up with the right kit.
If it keeps blocking, the toilet is probably not the problem
A WC that blocks every few weeks, or clears and then backs up again a fortnight later, is usually reporting a fault further down the line: roots growing into the drain, a joint that has dropped out of line, or a section of pipe that has partly collapsed. Clearing the same blockage four times in a year costs more than putting a camera down once — that is our CCTV drain survey. If the survey finds broken pipe rather than debris, drain repairs is the page that covers putting it right.
What affects the price
Clearing an ordinary blocked toilet is usually a short job with hand tools, and it is priced that way. The cost goes up when the blockage turns out to be somewhere other than the toilet, or when something solid is stuck.
How far down the blockage is
In the pan or the trap, a plunger or closet auger usually shifts it. In the branch pipe behind the wall, the shared soil stack or the drain outside, it takes longer and heavier equipment, worked from a different access point.
Something solid in the trap
A child’s toy, a hairbrush, a mobile phone or the plastic cage from a rim block will not break down or flush through. If it cannot be hooked back out, the pan has to come off the floor, which means a new pan connector and seal when it goes back.
Macerators and wall-hung pans
A macerator has to be opened up and its pump and blades cleared, often of wipes and scale. A wall-hung pan is bolted to a frame behind the wall, so anything stuck deep inside one takes more work to reach than on a floor-standing toilet.
Only toilet, or a spare
If it is the only toilet in the home, it is worth an urgent visit; if there is a second one, it can usually wait for an ordinary booking at a normal rate. Either way, the engineer agrees the price with you before starting.
The price is agreed before any work starts. We take card and cash.
Common questions
The water rises to the rim when I flush. What should I do?
Stop flushing, and shut the small isolating valve on the pipe feeding the cistern so nobody can flush it again by mistake. Then bail the pan down to about half full with a jug. That leaves you with a toilet that will not overflow while you wait.
Can you clear a blocked toilet without taking it off?
Nearly always. A plunger, then a closet auger — a flexible rod made to go round the trap without chipping the pan — deals with the great majority. Lifting the WC off is a last resort for something solid that will not come back up or go forwards, like a toy or a bottle top.
Every sink and toilet in the flat is slow, not just the WC.
Then the blockage is not under any one fixture — it is in the soil stack the whole flat drains into, or in the drain outside. That is a different job and it is covered on our drain unblocking page. Worth mentioning when you call, because it changes what we bring with us.
Are flushable wipes really a problem?
Yes. They flush out of the pan happily enough and then sit in the pipe, because they do not disintegrate in water. They are among the most common things we pull out of blocked toilets and shared stacks in London flats.
Will boiling water or bleach clear it?
Neither is a good idea. Boiling water can crack a ceramic pan, and it can soften the joints on plastic waste pipes. Bleach cleans, but it does nothing to break up paper, wipes or anything solid. If you want to try something first, bail the pan down, add a good squirt of washing-up liquid and some hand-hot water, and leave it for a while — that sometimes loosens a soft paper blockage.
My flat’s toilet is blocked. Should I tell the managing agent?
If only your toilet is affected, the blockage is almost certainly in your own pipework and it is yours, or your landlord’s, to deal with. If neighbours are reporting slow drains too, or water is coming up in a flat below, the problem is probably in the shared soil stack, which is normally the freeholder’s responsibility — so tell the managing agent straight away. Your lease sets out exactly who pays for what.
More drainage work we take on
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Drain Unblocking
Sinks, toilets and outside drains cleared with proper equipment, not a bottle of chemicals.
More on Drain Unblocking -
CCTV Drain Surveys
A camera down the drain shows what is actually wrong, rather than guessing from what keeps happening above ground.
More on CCTV Drain Surveys -
Drain Repairs
A drain that is actually broken, not just blocked — repaired by digging it up or, where the run allows, without digging at all.
More on Drain Repairs -
Surface Water Drainage
Rainwater with nowhere to go — standing water on patios, paths and gardens, given somewhere to drain.
More on Surface Water Drainage -
Gutter Repair
Blocked, leaking, sagging and overflowing gutters cleared and repaired, along with the downpipes below them.
More on Gutter Repair
Need blocked toilet in London?
Describe the problem and give us your area, and we’ll tell you the price before anyone starts work.